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Reset the Trade Block Topic

Owners tend to add players to the trade block and then forget they are on there once the season begins. This makes the TB virtually useless since there is no way to tell if the owner is still looking to move the guy. I would suggest that WIS resets the TB three times during the season; first on Opening Day, again at the All-Star break and finally the day after the trading deadline. This way, if a player appears on the Block, there is a good chance he is available. And if you have a guy on the TB when there is a reset, maybe you receive an e-mail alerting you to the reset.

What user problem? I'm of the mind that the Trade Block should be wiped as well. But I'd do it on a player-by-player basis. Like a classified ad: you can run this guy for 2 weeks, if you haven't traded him by then and you still want him gone, you have to re-list him. This prevents someone from putting a player on TB the day before Opening Day and having him wiped the next day, which would be silly.

Owners who put players on the trade block with no intention of trading them unless they're "wowed".
Owners who put crap on the trade block that no one would ever trade for.
Owners leaving players on the trade block after they've made other moves making them indispensable.
Owners posting players as "available" in the trade chat when they have no one on the trade block.

We, as a group, use the trade block poorly. Resetting it every few weeks won't change that. You'll just have an empty trade block or cause more work for those who do use it properly now.

If I put someone on the trade block, it's because I'm looking to trade them. My mind likely won't change 2 weeks from now. Don't make me continue to add him. If I make a move, and no longer want to move that player, and I forget to take him off, then I'm reminded after 1 trade chat.

Maybe if you want an email in your inbox every so often that states: "Just a reminder, you have these players on the trade block. You may want to take them off if you no longer want to trade them!" But I don't want to do more work to compensate for other's laziness or forgetfulness.

Posted by soursurfer on 11/29/2012 12:10:00 PM (view original):What user problem? I'm of the mind that the Trade Block should be wiped as well. But I'd do it on a player-by-player basis. Like a classified ad: you can run this guy for 2 weeks, if you haven't traded him by then and you still want him gone, you have to re-list him. This prevents someone from putting a player on TB the day before Opening Day and having him wiped the next day, which would be silly.

OK, this would be better, except as a practical matter, I figure WIS *might* set a program to wipe it clean every xx days but it would never do it player by player.

And, sure, the block would still have the problems Mike listed, but that doesn't mean this wouldn't help. A bunch of guys throw guys on the block in preseason when the juices are flowing, then never look again, for two months. Even just one resetting at the beginning or end of ST would improve things.

I'm still trying to figure out what we're hoping to resolve. Is it the "Hey, Joe Slobonsky is on the block. What do you want?" trade chat? Because I don't see that as a bigger problem as the blind trade offer for the guy you'd never trade. Both require one response to resolve.

I understood the original issue wasn't the unreasonableness of an owner who wants to trade crap for the moon, but simply to get names off the block that are no longer available. By the draft, that accounts for about 90 percent of the block, in my experience. Owners forget or simply don't care who they put there.

Posted by soursurfer on 11/29/2012 12:10:00 PM (view original):What user problem? I'm of the mind that the Trade Block should be wiped as well. But I'd do it on a player-by-player basis. Like a classified ad: you can run this guy for 2 weeks, if you haven't traded him by then and you still want him gone, you have to re-list him. This prevents someone from putting a player on TB the day before Opening Day and having him wiped the next day, which would be silly.

OK, this would be better, except as a practical matter, I figure WIS *might* set a program to wipe it clean every xx days but it would never do it player by player.

And, sure, the block would still have the problems Mike listed, but that doesn't mean this wouldn't help. A bunch of guys throw guys on the block in preseason when the juices are flowing, then never look again, for two months. Even just one resetting at the beginning or end of ST would improve things.

What? Why couldn't they do it on a player by player basis? Speaking as a programmer, it's no more challenging to do either in this case, because the date the player was put on the Trading Block is already stored (you can view it on a player's Player Card Transaction list).

Mike, you're right that users will continue to use the trade block in stupid ways, but this can help mitigate it. Using the scenarios you listed:

Owners who put players on the trade block with no intention of trading them unless they're "wowed". Still a problem.
Owners who put crap on the trade block that no one would ever trade for. Not a problem to me, in this case. The point is to make the trade block more useful. If owners are listing crap I don't want, that's no big deal. I just want it to be easier to identify tradable pieces. Then it's up to me to determine what my needs are and make a selection. A simple sort on vR or whatever is important to me will move these players to the bottom of the list, where I won't look at them anyway. The issue isn't that the block doesn't often contain players that I want, it's that it contains players that actually are no longer tradable.
Owners leaving players on the trade block after they've made other moves making them indispensable. Having a 2-week removal period would reduce this problem.
Owners posting players as "available" in the trade chat when they have no one on the trade block. Still and forever will be a problem.

What I hope to get out of instituting something like this is that if I wake up one morning and think "Hey, I need a RP!" and see a guy that I like on the block that there's actually a high percentage chance that he is in fact available. You can't make the system perfect, but you can make it better.

Removing players from the trade block periodically won't make it better. In fact, it might make it useless. I put players on the trade block because I want to trade them. On Day 1, there may be no need. On Day 57, after an injury, there may be a need. Unfortunately, on Day 15, all my listed players were removed. I never put them back on the block.

I think, if they're purged every 15 days, or whatever, you'll find a bunch of empty trade blocks.

Anyway, as it stands now, you open a discussion with another owner. Maybe you say "What do you want for Johnny Slapstick?" He says "Oh, damn, I forgot he was on the block. I'm not trading him now." From there, you either get nothing else, which means you "wasted" 15 seconds, or, maybe the other guy says "However, I'm willing to move Jimmy Jazzhands" and you two can go back and forth on what you need vs. what he'll move.